For years anthropologists have used pen, pencil and paper to conduct interviews and write observational notes. Those notes later needed to be transcribed. In the late 2000s, however, the digital pen entered the market and has had a profound impact on how I conduct my ethnographic work. Using a digital pen I can store my notes like any other digital file, share them online, and convert them into text using handwriting recognition technology. While this tool does not change what I write, it does affect how I write, save, organize and share the notes I make during interviews and observations. A number of manufacturers offer a variety of digital pens, all of which basically do the same thing: digitize handwriting. One additional feature is what concerns me in this brief piece and is why I chose, use, and recommend the Livescribe Smartpen: the addition of audio to my notes. This feature sets the Livescribe pen apart, especially for anthropologists.
Livescribe Pen Photo courtesy Jerome Crowder
There are two basic designs of digital pen. The simplest (such as those offered by Logitec and Iogear) triangulate the movements of the pen’s nib on a sheet of paper and then turn those data into a digital facsimile of the written page. This is excellent for capturing notes or drawings on whatever paper you have at hand. The more unique offering, by Livescribe, uses a small camera buried in the tip of the implement to capture the pen strokes on special dot paper, which it then uses to reproduce the handwritten set of notes. But as one writes, the pen simultaneously captures the sounds taking place (like voices in an interview, class, or meeting), allowing you to capture every word said, whether you write it down or not. Livescribe calls their pen a densely-packed, lightweight, multi-modal computer, or Smartpen—I call it indispensable.
I first became familiar with the Smartpen during the 2008 AAA annual meeting in San Francisco when I noticed an audience member using a larger sized pen to write in a notebook that had various icons in the lower gutter of the page. After the panel I approached him to ask about the gadget in his hand. He demonstrated what can be called a “Swiss-army knife of pens”, a gadget that combines the two most important tools for ethnographic research into one rather slick implement, the pen and audio recorder. He went back to his notes and tapped the nib on a word he had written during the panel. Instantly, the sound of voices from the panel emanated from the small speaker in the pen—the captured audio from the moment he had written those specific notes. His quick demo inspired me to inquire further when I returned home, and I purchased a similar pen directly from the company. From that moment on, I keep a pen and notebook in my satchel, always ready and available for meetings, interviews, or general note-taking.
The Pen Itself
My first Livescribe pen is called the PULSE and has 2 GB of memory on board (current pens boast up to 8GB). It is about the same length as a normal pen, but the smooth barrel’s girth is twice that of a pencil. Along the barrel is a small speaker and the narrow window for the OLED display (Organic Light Emitting Diodes) allows for one line of text. Two small microphones are buried on either side of the window and near the top-end is the power button, recessed to the body’s surface level to prevent accidental powering on/off. At the top-end is a headphone socket. The Smartpen’s ball-point nib is off-center (like a fountain pen) to allow for the camera to capture the ink’s placement on the blue-dot paper, but can otherwise be held in any orientation.
New pens come with tutorials and a starter notebook. Located inside the front cover of all notebooks are universal controls, which, when tapped with the nib, access features like setting the date/time, checking battery life and storage availability, setting audio recording sensitivity, display brightness, and playback variables as well as navigating the main menus of the pen. There are even calculator buttons printed on the paper, for use like any other calculator, except the results appear on the pen’s display. For immediate writing controls, there are different icons printed at the bottom of each page for record and playback, jumping through notes, placing bookmarks, as well as adjusting playback speed and volume output. Most important are the main menu cross-hairs, which you tap to navigate the menus seen on the pen’s display. Besides these basic features, you can also accesses specific applications (which you can download separately) such as language translators, dictionaries, and other applications developed by the company (although as of July 2012 Livescribe no longer develops applications, but allows third-parties to do so).
Using the Pen
At its simplest, the pen records audio while I take notes, allowing me to concentrate on the interview’s overall content and not worry about capturing sentences verbatim. It’s a liberating feeling to maintain eye contact with an interviewee and not continually glance down at my notes as we talk. If my participant says something I think is important at that time, I can tap the star button, which bookmarks that moment in my notes for later review. The advantages are that there is not a visible voice recorder on the table to make my participant feel self-conscious, I have fewer gadgets to carry, and my notes and audio record are consolidated into a single synchronized file. At the end of the session I stop the recording and simply put the pen and notebook away.
Once at my computer, I dock the pen and synchronize the files with the Livescribe desktop application (Mac and PC compatible). The Livescribe desktop (now tablet friendly) allows me to manage my notebooks, share my files, review my notes, and playback the audio. The application’s dashboard has modes for reviewing the pages by number (literally, a small facsimile of each page of a notebook appears in a grid) or sorting the notes based on time/date. Clicking on an individual session initiates audio playback. The digital script darkens as the synchronized audio plays back, matching what I wrote with what I was hearing. Through the desktop I can also upload to Livescribe’s online community (or to Evernote, Facebook, Google Docs, and the like.) where I can (a) share my “pencasts” publically, or (b) direct individuals to secure files via specific links or emails. As of this printing, the latest release from LIVESCRIBE, the SKY, uses wi-fi technology to directly connect the pen to an Evernote account (initiated with the purchase of the pen) without the intermediary computer interface.
My PULSE replaced the regular notepads and pens I used in meetings and interviews. Of course, I let my colleagues know if I was audio recording before we began (there are options to capturing just handwriting or just audio), and was then able to review both notes and audio for later clarification on tasks or comments. If I thought it was important enough, I shared the notes with colleagues via Livescribe-Connect, sending them a direct link to that specific session, which they could download as a PDF with audio capability, and replay the entire session for themselves. Both the original notes and those converted to PDF are searchable, and Livescribe’s search feature is rather robust and successful at finding words that I have written throughout my documents regardless of penmanship.
Attending monthly meetings of a local civic association, the Livescribe pen was invaluable, as I saved, filed, and backed-up each session for future use. I also shared the files with my team, as well as the civic association’s board members. Since I kept all of those notes in the same notebook, if there was ever a question about previous decisions in a meeting, I could refer to my notes and play the audio for all to hear. Plus, the notes helped the board’s secretary write the minutes.
Livescribe produces proprietary blue-dot paper in a variety of sizes and formats. Each sheet is perforated so it can be removed from the notebook and physically stored separately, but if you remove the audio file from the pen, it will no longer be able to read the document. Depending upon the memory capacity of the pen, you can store notes from multiple notebooks, allowing electronic review of your notes on the desktop without having the notebooks at hand. All digital files can be archived for security purposes, too. Although the notebooks are reasonably priced for their paper quality and build, with a color Laser Jet printer (Adobe PostScript compatible) you can print your own paper as necessary. Additionally, Vision Objects has developed a handwriting recognition technology called “My Script” that will convert your ink into text (a free trial download is available) making your drawings and handwriting readable in MS WORD or other word processors.
Some Caveats
As with any emerging technology there will be problems, and the Livescribe pen has its share. Common complaints about the PULSE include its bulky size which caused some users hand strain. Newer pens are more ergonomic, but still thicker than a normal pencil. Lack of variety in ink colors, quantities and types (ball-point, gel, felt tip) also register complaints on the Livescribe website as users find the quality of the inks poor and their delivery “scratchy,” with the audio picking-up the actual sound of the pen writing on the paper (which may be distracting when listening for subtle details). A higher quality, third-party ink made by Starminen delivers more smoothly/quietly. Furthermore, the small cartridges do not last as long as a cheap ball-point, so have back-ups ready! In both public and private situations, I found that the illuminated display panel distracts people. For example, during a focus group, one of the participants stopped and asked me about my digital pen and wanted a full demo before we continued. He immediately saw the implications for such a pen in his children’s education and wanted me to give him one. I then figured out how to turn the panel off, to be more discreet. With that in mind, recognize that for students who are not already comfortable in the interview situation, the Smartpen may make them more self-conscious because of its display and the unique appearance of the pen and notebook.
Conclusion
Although tablets and the cloud are the immediate future of computing, the pen and paper will probably remain staples of the anthropologist’s toolkit. The digital pen bridges these media nicely, providing an analog way to write while offering a digital means for saving and sharing notes. The Livescribe pen completes the basic toolkit by combining audio with note taking so we have a more complete record which is easily reviewable, sharable, and archivable.
Jerome Crowder is assistant professor in the Institute for the Medical Humanities at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston. His research interests include medical anthropology and Latin American studies, and he has done long-term fieldwork in the Bolivian and Peruvian Andes.
via Anthropology-News http://www.anthropology-news.org/index.php/2013/02/06/unleashing-the-power-of-the-digital-pen/
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